Mastiffs LOVE Raw Cow Milk - Who Knew?

Not I, until we started giving Colt some leftover milk that didn't fit neatly into the containers. He even tried to get in my milking pail a few days ago.

"My excessively large head doesn't quite fit...."

We make him sit and stay and pout it in his food bowl. He goes CRAZY for it. I've never seen him respond with such intensity for any other food except whole-rib cow bones.

And they say humans are the only creatures to drink another animal's milk. HA!

Building a Portable Pig Shelter

Since adding the piggies to the movable pens, they really haven't had much shelter they've nested in a pile of hay with no roof. So, I spent some time this weekend building them a little something-somethin. It's essentially a (roughly) 45-degree sloped roof set up in a lean-to fashion. The bottom end of the roof lays on the ground, and is supported on either side by two 2x10 boards that act as "legs." Here's a shot of it set up in the pen, providing instant shade:

The portable pig panels in the piggie pen providing potent penumbra for Poomba, et. al.
Perfection!

Sidenote: I really like this^ picture, as it shows the pigs in one pen, the cows in the next two, and the chickens in the background. This area will become a great big garden once the animals get rotated off of it in a few weeks.

Anyway, back to the shelter.

UPDATE 3/25: We just had a freak snow storm come through. I went out to feed the pigs a bowl of kitchen goodies, and they were all snug under the shelter, dry as a bone. They came running out for the food, of course, but it's nice to know they're enjoying the shelter.

And Now, a Mastiff Moment

Thing #3 and Colt the Mastiff watched me clean this weekend.
Cutest QC team ever.

Having a nice, calm, family dog is a wonderful thing. Having a 200+ pound guard dog is a wonderful thing. Combining the two into one hulking beast of a drooling, lovable oaf is even better.

English Mastiffs are so calm and patient with children. Right after I took this picture,Thing #3 crawled up and tried to ride Colt. He was too lazy to do anything about about it, and when Thing #3 got bored, he gave Colt a hug then toddled off. Colt then went to sleep. It was awesome.

Year-End Animal Inventory

At year's end, we have:

• 1 English Mastiff
• 1 donkey
• 1 corn snake
• 1 outdoor cat
• 15 or so African Ciclid fishies (they had babies!)
• 3 Katahdin sheep (2 of whom may or may not be pregnant)
• 16 chickens (1 rooster, Corn, plus 15 hens)

Sure, All the Beef

So Wife and I thought it would be a great idea to pool in some friends and buy 1/4 of a grass-fed cow. We opted for the bones for Colt to chew on, too.
My, oh my. That's a lot o' cow.

Thing #3 thought stacking steaks was his job.

We crammed as much as we could into the freezer. We got all of the meat, but not the bones......

Moving the Electric Netting

Animal friends in the electric net system.

Every 7 to 14 days or so, I need to move the animals to a new spot. I have 4 pieces of electric netting, 164 feet long each, and a solar charger for the fence. I only use 3 nets right now, because the sheep and chickens are still so little, they're not eating enough to justify the increased area.
It's a pretty cool setup. Most of the time it takes me about 2 hours to move it. Between that and daily water checks, I really have very little other animal maintenance. This movable pasture system provides so many cool benefits:

• The periodic moves keep the animals on fresh grass all the time.
• The system prevents overgrazing.
• Parasites are unable to establish themselves given the time that passes between the animals grazing over a particular spot. I like to give at least 30 days rest between moving them back, allowing any existing parasites to die off.
• The electric fence, and the moving of said fence, keeps predators at bay.

So I decided to document what I do.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Mastiff!

Colt, our English mastiff, turned two this month. I missed his birthday when it actually came around.

Two years old and 200 pounds. Happy Birthday, big fella!

So now that he's 2 years old and 200 lbs., he's almost full-grown. We expect him to fill out and peak at around 220 lbs.